Escape from the kitchen...

We always dreamed of having a cow that could really produce some milk.  All the cows we have milked previously averaged about a gallon a day (milking once a day) after the initial freshening.  We would hear of these Jerseys producing 3-5 gallons a day and wonder why our cows never reached such amounts.  Well, Fiona has become one of these mythical cows, and is giving us 2-3 gallons a day with one milking and--and--feeding her calf Lola as well.  This is wonderful for us, but without a pig to drink up the excess, I am constantly working to make use of as much of it as I can.  My sister takes a couple of gallons a week, and I clabber some for the chickens, but I'm making a gallon of yogurt a week, queso blanco twice a week, a half gallon of pudding once a week, ice cream, chocolate milk and smoothies.  I skim most of the cream from the gallons for butter and make that, too, as often as I am able.  Am ordering citric acid and mesophilic starter to start making mozzarella and hard cheeses soon.  I am the Dairy Queen...

Top photo:  the kitchen in a typical state of crazy.  The makings of Best Blueberry Birthday Pancakes for Dominic.  He turned 8 yesterday, although we are putting off the celebration proper until Saturday.  There is also the stuff for making the cheese, cream ready for churning, and the rice and lentils out to remind me to fix up a pot of my lentil and rice "beef-filler".

Second photo, at the end of 5 hours.  In the peanut butter container is 4.5 lbs. of chocolate pudding mix (I had two quarts of pudding in the fridge); there's a couple of pounds of the lentil-rice mix, which I keep in the freezer; 1.25 lbs of butter and 10 oz. of queso blanco.  There's also a bag of leftover pancakes from the bazillion that I cooked up, and 3 quarts of whey, left from the bit of cheese.  I use it for cooking with, or, more popularly, for whey lemonade.

School continues, as we school year-round and take our days off as needed.  Una and Sebastian have been taking Mondays and Fridays off from school to help paint at the new house.  Yes, we are painting, which means we only need doors, floors, trim, electrical fixtures and the whole kitchen before it is done--or at least ready to move into.  Certain things, finishing touches, will have to wait until we are already in.  Things like bookcases and crown molding.  I'm praying for money in the budget for a well, as I hate the thought of paying for city water with what we do here on laundry and showers, not to mention the animals and garden we have planned...

Well--just thought I would drop by to let everyone know that I've not completely dropped off the face of the earth.  Oh, and Annita, I know that Gemma's half-naked in the photos again.  Even with the pretty T-shirts you sent her, she still is constantly peeling them off and leaving them lying about...!

So busy...

 It's been over a month since last I checked in here.  There has been plenty going on, and I need to update a little.  In May we enjoyed a visit from my uncle and grandmother.  Grandma Fran is all over the kids, and Uncle Cliff is so funny, the kids enjoy their visits very much.  Cliff took us out to eat--in honor of Sebastian's birthday--to the same BBQ place we went to with them last year (incredible ribs and cole slaw!).  Grandma Fran will be 88 next month, and plans to come for an annual visit for as long as she is able to do so.

 Our hens have been laying well, but yesterday there was a sudden drop in egg-count, and so we need to go on an egg-hunt and find where the girls may be leaving them.

The kitty above is Jake.  His sister Lizzy went missing last month, and he's been a little lonely without her.  We are guessing that a car or coyotes took her.  she was around 8 years old, which isn't bad for a barn cat who hasn't set foot inside any structure other than a barn her entire life.

Fiona, our Jersey, is due to freshen any day now.  She is bagging up and moving around very slowly.  It will be nice for us to have our own milk again, although less nice for Sebastian, our primary milker who will have to go back to work, and Gabriel, who will be milker-in-training.

 We drove to Franklin, TN for what was a first concert for our kids (a drawback of rural living is that it is a bit tougher to get to cultural events).  Music City Roots, live from the Loveless Barn, is aired on radio weekly.  We drove an hour and a half to get there and ate Little Caesar's Pizza in the van to save money!) and had a wonderful time.  Our main reason for going was the indie band Scythian.  I am a huge fan of theirs, as are a couple of my kids, and it was a delight to watch them live for the first time.  We had to leave before the very end of the show, as Gemma was beginning to fade.

This past weekend we went to the Chapel of Divine Mercy for an ordination Mass.  Ordained to the priesthood was Deacon John Broussard, CPM.  The photos above are of his first blessings--to his father, to his superior, Fr. David Wilton, CPM, and to his sister, who suffers from cerebral palsy and whose sufferings she attached to her prayers for her brother's vocation.  It was a beautiful Mass.

In other news, the drywall is up in the new Patch O' Dirt farmhouse, and next week the taping and finishing of it will be started.  Bret has hired that work out, and is working a few jobs to pull in some money before he gets going on doors, floors, light fixtures and trim.  It's neat to see it with the interior walls finally up!

And it is the end of an era:  we got a mini-van.  We are getting ready to sell our 12 passenger GMC now that everyone but Gemma is out of car seats, and we purchased a Chevy Ventura.  It should cut our gasoline costs in half, which, if you live in the middle of nowhere, can be considerable.  However, if you happen to be in our region and looking for a dependable gas-hog for your burgeoning family, email me and I'll hook you up!

We are getting ready to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday with a cholesterol-laden meal of pork ribs, beans, potatoes, corn, maybe coleslaw, and a cheesecake for dessert!  Too rich for me--I'll likely stick to the sides and pass on the cheesecake...every time I eat too many different things at one setting, I end up with a stomach ache and feeling miserable.

Oh--and I'm still running 6 miles, 3 days a week.  But I decided on Monday to see what I could do, and I went 8 miles, non-stop!  I was pretty excited, having been a non-athlete all my life.

And that's all the news worth telling.  We'll see when I make it back here!

Tempus fugit...

Yes; time flies...
And seasons turn, and children grow.
I can't quite pinpoint why it is I have such difficulty coming to this space to write these days.  I could chalk it up to the fact that I've been channeling my writing energy into some other area, and that would be true.  I could say that I'm not quite at ease with my new manual camera, and that it is only recently that I've ventured outdoors to take pictures (I hate indoor photos), and that would also be true.  I could say that I just have lost my enthusiasm for blogging and for blogs, and this, too, would be true.  The fact is, I just seem to find almost anything more interesting than blogging these days.

I'm here to alleviate my guilt.  I have had several friends and die-hard followers tell me that they miss the posts, and it is they who bring mere here today in order to update.  Also, if there is anything I personally miss about blogging, it is keeping a chronicle of our lives here.  I don't like missing out on birthdays and other events, and not having some record of them.

It's been a long time, so bear with me.

This Lent went by in a hurry, which seemed unusual to me, and I think it was because it was my worst ever since coming into the Church in 1996.  Not because of any terrible trials or mortifications; on the contrary, what made it a terrible Lent was the fact that I felt such spiritual ennui.  Inertia.  I could not seem to motivate myself to do much of anything for God, and the few things I did do seemed so small as to be ridiculous.  The Lord didn't even bother to step in with His own Lenten agenda for me (no illness, no trials other than the usual lack of money coming in and bills to be paid), so it was an easy Lent, and therefore not a very good one.  Lent should be--and this is my own opinion--like an upward struggle over rocks to show love and come closer to God through the subjugation of the will.  Well, I felt as if I just sent God a Hallmark card this Lent and left it at that.  The only thing that kept me from despairing over my miserable spiritual state was the fact that it really bugged me that I was in that state.

Easter was quite nice, however.  We were able to spend it with friends who have been inviting us for Easter for at least a decade.  Four adults and fourteen kids--you'd think that we'd have had no time to chat at all, but the weather was fine and the kids occupied one another, and we adults managed to have quite a lot of time to visit and chat.

Una's 15th birthday was only days after Easter.  She received everything she asked for (her desires are amazingly small and simple for a girl her age) and an unexpected camera from a dear friend.  I'd decided to give her my old Fuji when I got a new Nikon for my last birthday, but within days of getting the new camera, my old one broke.  So I was quite overjoyed when my friend sent this camera.  Una was delighted and surprised as well.  In the afternoon, we had a priest friend visit and had a delightful time of it.  He's off to Australia to preach missions form many weeks, so it was a last chance to have him over for a while.

This week is pretty busy...Bret has some work (thank you, Lord and St. Joseph) and has made some progress on the new house, so that we're about ready for the insulation and drywall.  My sister, nephews and niece will be coming over tomorrow, and I have to get house and larder ready for a visit from my grandmother and uncle at the beginning of the week.  In between, I have to figure out what to get for my mom for Mother's Day!  And Sebastian is having a big birthday--his 13th--next Thursday.

I've become unbelievably inept at planning ahead.  Unfortunately my plan of action at this point only involves me crawling into a hole with a bottle of wine and pretending that it will all take care of itself.  Which, of course, it will not.  So to heck with that plan, and I'd better come up with something a little less escapist...

In other news, everyone has been fairly well thus far this spring (Gemma had a cold, but it lasted 5 days and nobody else caught it, miracle of miracles), and I trumped my personal best and ran 7 miles without pause last Friday.  I have muscles in my calves I don't think I have ever seen before.  I'm seriously more fit than I've ever been, and it feels good not to get winded easily.

The weather's been nice, too.  The last few photos above were taken on a walk yesterday.  Bret had all the boys up at the new house, and so Una, Gemma and I went for a walk.  It was very lovely, and we were gone for 1.5 hours.  Gemma slipped crossing a little stream and fell in, but was enjoying the walk so much that she didn't want to go home, even soaked as she was.

Well--I've work to do. Besides reading with Dominic, I have to strip the beds in the boys' room.  It's getting smelly in there, and I think freshly washed bedding will improve matters.

I'm not making any promises, but I'll try to come back soon...

Monday Miscellany

A little cooktop I made for Gemma--a temporary one until she gets a wooden one for her birthday in July

Pink Floyd has about 5 weeks left until his appointment with the butcher.  He is really packing on weight!

Barney Barnvelder

Blooms from Gemma and a weird knitting project--the novelty yarn looked kind of neat on the skein, but now I am thinking it may be the ugliest thing I've ever knit (outside of a camo-yarn hat for my oldest boy)

Before Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday

I've been on a blog break for the last week, as you may or may not have noticed.  Honestly, I just haven't felt up to blogging lately.  I had thought I would get back into it after Easter, but last week was really busy.  Bret, who has had few hours at the cabinet shop, was working on the house on Monday, and on Tuesday came home from the cabinet shop somewhat early and sick as a dog with a terrible cold.  Wednesday I had to go into town to have the dentist fix a temporary crown that had been causing me a lot of pain all the previous week, and then Dominic, over a cold, seemed to have an ear infection.  The other kids complained on and off of sore throats, and I fought it all with lots of vitamin C and colloidal silver (and garlic-mullein oil ear drops for Dominic).  On Thursday we had our food co-op pick-up, and I left everyone home and went with Bret.  On Friday, Bret, against my better judgement, went to work on the house again.  The weather was nice, but he still was coughing and congested.  Well, when he came home, he was as poorly off as he'd been on Tuesday.  Saturday was spent at home, administering tea and vitamin C to all who needed it.  I cancelled plans to have my sister's family and my mom over for Divine Mercy Sunday.

We did make it to Mass yesterday, and God's mercy was abundant.  Bret is much better today and is working at the shop; Dominic hasn't had to take Ibuprofen in 36 hours; Gabe and Adrian, who both had sore throats last night seem well this morning (although I will carry on with the extra C and supplements throughout today), and the weather is dry and mild.

Some plans for this week:  I'm off to a busy start.  I have a bunch of school print-outs to, er, print out for this   week and next; I have done laundry this morning, made a phone call to Shoebuy.com about a refund, filled out a form to return a still-under-warranty-non-functional MP3 player, put up a batch of water kefir and paid the electric bill.  I still need to do my bank statement (yuck), fold a heap of laundry, and get some herb seeds started now that winter seems to finally be over.  I am also hoping to bake an apple cake or two...

I need to order and make birthday gifts for Una, whose birthday is only a couple of weeks away and I need to make a list of other things to make for upcoming birthdays (doll clothes for Gemma's birthday in July ought to be started on soon, or I'll never get them done!).  And there's Mother's Day to think about.  Eeek...

If I find some time to myself, I would like to...cast on a sweater.  And maybe some doll things.  And another pair of socks.  I would like to dig around in my fabric stash and see if there is something I could use for summer pajama shorts for the boys, as they really don't have much that isn't ready for the rag-pile at this point.

I am grateful for...Dominic's ear improving without a trip to the doctor, as we've done the whole ear tubes thing before and I wouldn't want another summer of constant vigilance over Dominic around water.  I'm grateful for every day that Bret has work, and it looks like he might be busy this week; I am grateful for the work he has gotten done on the new house recently.  I am grateful for a full pantry and family and friends.

Some prayer intentions for this week:  I have been praying for the grandma of my daughter's dear pen-pal, who at last word was very ill with pneumonia and unresponsive; I am praying for the daughter of a friend who is awaiting word of whether she will be be able to attend the college she has her heart set on; I am praying for the completion of the new house and for enough work for Bret to pay the bills, and for friends of ours who are trying to sell their farm and other friends who are looking for work, and for Laurence to quit smoking (Ahem! You hear me, Laurence?).  Finally, I pray for greater zeal, so that carrying the cross will be an act of love rather than something to fear.

Something that makes me smile:
Dominic, to Una , regarding a character she has in one of her stories:  "Why is the main character working for the bad guys?"
Una:  "He has amnesia."
Dominic:  "Well, maybe he can sneeze on the bad guys and they'll get it, too."

Have a blessed week!